One year on

One year ago I moved to morocco (from columbus ... On columbus day!), joining Cory who was already here scouting things out for us. We found an apt we love, visited tons of places we love, i found a job i love, and we have met so many new people to love. 

It has been great to be back, apart from missing family and friends and trader joes. 

Today in the taxi ride home from work (taxi rides are one of my favorite parts of morocco because i love talking to the drivers), the driver feigned delighted amazement at my arabic skills, invited me to his family's house on friday for couscous lunch, and refused my payment at the end of the ride. 

We always say Morocco is a beautiful country with delicious food and really kind people - and tonight was just one of the examples. 

Thank you God and thank you morocco for an amazing year!

Study in Ants

When I was a kid, I had a fear of alligators coming up out of the toilet and biting my butt. Happy to report that fear was all for nothing!

Now though, we have the real-life grossness of ants crawling out of the toilet and biting our butts. Which is to say: the ants are everywhere in our apartment.

They stream in and out of holes in our walls. They swarm over every little speck of sugar we happen to leave out in the kitchen. We found out the hard way that they love cheese, not just sweets, after I left out the remnants of a mac and cheese meal.

Most maddening, they are in our bed and our toilet.

It has pretty much reached the point of pushing me over the edge.
But the ag extension websites tell me that September is the end of their swarming ways.

Until then we try not to leave food scraps anywhere. We put them in the fridge if we don't have time to clean. We pour boiling water on them when they're swarming in and out of cracks and crevices.

And hopefully at the end of the month, they magically disappear.

Election day!

It's election day! Time to vote! 

And time for the late night parades and political literature thrown all over the streets to stop!

Baby shower

There are a few baby showers coming up here soon - so exciting!

I was talking to my cab driver last night about the parties we are planning to celebrate. He had a couple of opinions and really interesting comparisons with the Moroccan way of celebrating new arrivals.

His strongest opinion related to party composition. 'Are you seriously going to have a party with all women? Parties with only one gender usually don't turn out well ... The girls get jealous of each other if they are by themselves. But if there are men around they are distracted with flirting!' I told him I would bring his point to my fellow planners.

Baby showers here are held AFTER the baby is born.

I went to one when I lived in Casablanca and it was so fun! The traditional meal for a baby shower is an amazing dish called rafeesa. It's a delicious mix of chicken, lentils, vermicelli, and wonderful spices.

The taxi driver said it would be bad luck to have the baby shower before the baby is born. I told him one of the reasons we do it early is so that the parents have everything they need already before the baby comes and then they are ready for the newborn. 

He was like, no way! We get the call from the parents about whether they had a boy or girl and then we race around picking up things to bring to the parents! It's so much more exciting that way!

Let's talk about moneyyy

First off, if you have the Moroccan dirham equivalent of a $20 bill, you might as well have no money. It's too big for more taxi drivers or small shop owners to break. But the ATM spits out mostly $20s (200d) so we have to try to find some big store to buy something and break it.

Speaking of taxis, I noticed in my taxi the other day that prices have been exactly the same for *15* years. 15 years of stagnant wages for these guys. I should start tipping more.

The minimum wage here is about $350/week and that is for people who find formal employment, not many. Wait, did I say week? I meant month. About $1-2/hour. And soooo, lots of people live with their parents or a big group of friends. My taxi driver yesterday was saying here kids have the luxury of being lazy because their parents aren't going to kick them out like they do in the US :) But even someone working full-time isn't guaranteed a high enough salary to pay their own rent. 

Not that there are many people who would want to live alone! When Cory was in the States for a few weeks, one of our neighbors was so concerned: Aren't you going to be lonely??? 

The costs of living here are of course lower here, with the exception of high-quality manufactured goods (eg shoes, computers) which we pay a premium on if we buy here.

Anyhow, as with most places in the world, the poorest people are the most generous and I am challenged daily to up my generosity game. 

Can't take it with us!

Nothin to see here

We drove east with Janae in search of some gorge hiking. We got to the ZegZel gorge and asked around (in Arabic) for the trailhead. 

Local family: You just want to walk around? Why? Um, there's really nothing to see here ... It's all just the same as this (see pic above).

Us: Yeah! We think this is beautiful! 

Local family: You do?! Weird. ... Hmm, here's what you should do: get back in your car and drive up to the beach - it's beautiful there! 

Us: Let's say we already saw the beach, then where would we find a place to walk around here. Is it this way?

Local family: [blank stares] Honey, there's really nothing to see here, just more of the same. Why don't you just come over to our house and drink some tea?

:)

So we wandered and found a wonderful dry river bed to hike through. It was perfect!! I ❤️ climbing up and over and jumping across big boulders and that's pretty much all there was. It was perfect!

And when we were hot and sweaty enough, we got back in the car and drove up to the beach :)

Breaking the law - Ramadan edition

McDonalds is one of the few restaurants open during the day during Ramadan. That makes sense since most Moroccans are not eating or drinking during daylight hours.

In addition to be a religious duty, Ramadan is also legally obliged for Moroccans. This week, 5 people were arrested in Marrakesh for drinking orange juice during the day. The face 1-6 months in jail.

http://al-bab.com/blog/2015/july/morocco-ramadan.htm#sthash.MQtTj0N6.dpbs

As foreigners, we are not required to keep the fast and we stopped at a McDonalds to cool off and eat something during a (really fun!) road trip last weekend.

My jaw dropped when I saw this big placard next to me at the counter. 

It's a sign that reminds people that it's illegal to eat in public during the day and says McDonalds will not be held accountable for people breaking the law. (Kids, old people, pregnant and breastfeedding women, travelers, and foreigners are not obliged to fast.)

Serious business!